The Danish-owned shipping and logistics company SDK FREJA formalises their new ambitions within the sustainability agenda as they target climate footprint and people in the first collective sustainability report since the merger between SDK and FREJA in 2021.
In their first ever sustainability report, the family-owned SDK FREJA focuses on forming the basis for future work with social and environmental sustainability. Aiming to direct a data-driven and conscious effort to move in a more sustainable and responsible direction in the future, the report divides the different business areas within the recently merged company. The purpose is to prioritize efforts that ensure the maximum impact possible in the areas, where a real difference can be made.
“Sustainability has been on everybody’s lips in our business for many years. Reducing our climate footprint and securing a wider diversity in our employee ranks are not only crucial to the survival of our business but for the entire industry. Through our efforts to improve our environmental and social impact, we have constructed an ESG framework and established the baselines required to move ahead measurably and transparently with our sustainability commitments,” says Søren Gran Hansen, Group CEO of SDK FREJA and adds:
“In cooperation with the consultancy agency Deloitte, we have identified 12 topics within ESG where we intend to put intensive effort behind. These include employee retention, reduction of CO2 emissions, further strengthened compliance and strong governance.”
A united Executive Management consisting of Lars Jespersen, CEO of SDK, Ulrik Rasmussen, CEO of FREJA, and Søren Gran Hansen, Group CEO of SDK FREJA are behind the launch of the sustainability report and driving the important development of the ESG focus areas.
Specifically, SDK FREJA plans to dedicate their effort to reduce the company’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 60 percent by 2040, keep employee turnover under 15 percent, already maintaining a 12.5 percent turnover in 2020/21, and to train all SDK FREJA employees in the Group’s Code of Conduct (CoC), GDPR, and IT-security in 2022/23.
The shipping- and logistics company SDK FREJA was established at the turn of the year 2020/2021 in a merger between the SDK and FREJA. Ahead of the merger, FREJA had published several annual CSR reports and consequently, sustainability reporting is a natural step for the now unified company.
Framework forms the basis of development
Establishing formal business procedures in the work with sustainability is key to the development SDK FREJA face in the coming years. Apart from the considerable effort required to report on especially climate impact, the task involving working on the company’s joint sustainability goals also forms the basis of increasing coherence across the SDK FREJA organization and the different business entities.
As part of SDK FREJA’s objectives in their work with climate impact, among other things, SDK FREJA have committed to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50 percent in 2040, corresponding to more than 460.000 metric tonnes of CO2. The company’s Scope 3 emissions currently comprise 97.3 percent of SDK FREJA’s collective CO2 footprint, and the work to reduce this will therefore be crucial for SDK FREJA’s total impact.
“SDK FREJA consider the work on our sustainability report as a good and solid starting point from which we can establish both frameworks and concrete goals to work within and towards. Among other initiatives, we intend to use the financial year 2022/2023 to establish milestones for our company’s reduction targets, building a decarbonization roadmap, where some of the areas that we can already now influence are such as empty haulage and utilization of load capacity, which will result in fewer trucks on the road,” says Eric Clausen, Head of ESG and Quality.
These targets place high demands on the utilization of synergy effects and require strong backing to support the transition.
The ownership fully supports SDK FREJA
The launch of SDK FREJA’s first sustainability report is an important step for the global Group towards a unified and streamlined approach to sustainability and decency. And the work with sustainability in SDK FREJA is not an isolated effort. The ownership in A/S United Shipping and Trading Company (USTC) fully supports the work and the direction taken by the shipping and logistics company.
“The work with sustainability is an enormous task for a company such as ours operating in several countries and various types of businesses. For this reason, it is essential for us to have the full support of our ownership to invest time and resources in sustainability initiatives,” says Eric Clausen.
SDK FREJA have identified core sustainability areas that are aligned with the overarching goals set forth by the ownership in USTC: Corporate Governance, Climate Impacts, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, and Compliance. These key areas set the tone for efforts across all USTC subsidiaries.
SDK FREJA has joined forces with the consultancy agency Deloitte in their work on the publication of this first sustainability report. Going forward, SDK FREJA will release annual sustainability reports covering the progress made by SDK FREJA on the ESG topics material to the Group.
For further information, please contact:
Mikkel Wenzel Andreasen
Communications Officer, Group Communications
M +45 26 79 91 63